Mike, thanks for the article. Great as always. The Rockets' strategy was close to illegal defense, right? Players are not fully committed to their assignment in a couple of gifs. Especially the Drexler one.
Thanks! It definitely was. The rule technically was that you couldn’t be below the FT line while your man was standing beyond the three-point line. But in practice that’s difficult to enforce, especially when you’re supplementing one illegal defender with others who are covering for them. Many of the league’s best defensive teams flagrantly violated the rule and were good at disguising it — the Sonics, most notably.
Mike, thanks for the article. Great as always. The Rockets' strategy was close to illegal defense, right? Players are not fully committed to their assignment in a couple of gifs. Especially the Drexler one.
Thanks! It definitely was. The rule technically was that you couldn’t be below the FT line while your man was standing beyond the three-point line. But in practice that’s difficult to enforce, especially when you’re supplementing one illegal defender with others who are covering for them. Many of the league’s best defensive teams flagrantly violated the rule and were good at disguising it — the Sonics, most notably.
https://mikeprada.substack.com/p/save-our-sonics-defense
I’m glad they eventually got rid of the rule. Way too hard to enforce in practice, plus it made defensive schemes more intricate.